In Content Aware, Erika Mahr presents large, delicate drawings of digitally manipulated blankets and netting. Executed in charcoal on black paper, the unframed and unfixed drawings explore the subtle interplay between negative and positive spaces.

On close view the works read as abstract; on stepping back the woven reference materials, which were manipulated in Photoshop utilizing the “Content-Aware Fill,” are revealed. The Content-Aware Fill creates new visual information based on what she deletes, thus allowing an automated digital program some authorship in developing Mahr’s imagery.

Through her integration of the Content-Aware Fill, the interplay between negative and positive space, the veil-like element of woven materials, and the prominence of black, Mahr embraces the hidden and invites the viewer to guess at the unknown by mentally “filling in the gaps.”

Erika Mahr received an MFA from Hunter College and a BFA from the University of Florida. Previous exhibitions include Screens and Shrouds at Launch F18 in New York City, New Work by Erika Mahr at The Susan B. Hilles Gallery in New Haven, CT, and Drawing the Expanded Field at Clara Hatton Gallery at Colorado State University. Erika lives and works in Queens, NY.